American technology giant Microsoft has announced the deployment of its decentralized identity solution ION on the Bitcoin blockchain, considered the most secure and powerful decentralized public network in the industry.
The first version v1 of ION (Identity Overlay Network) se He launched on blockchain de Bitcoin (BTC) This Thursday, March 25, Microsoft, the company responsible for developing ION, explained that the solution was launched on Bitcoin, as it is the most powerful public blockchain network in the industry. It also highlighted that with its birth in 2009, Bitcoin revitalized cryptographers, computer scientists, and distributed systems engineers with a new optimism about the possibility of decentralizing many aspects of digital life, including identity.
ION is an open, public, permissionless layer 2 decentralized identifier network based on the ION protocol Sidetree Protocol, which runs on top of Bitcoin, to provide its users with a reliable and secure way to interact and transact within the network.
Decentralized identifiers (DIDs) help users secure access to resources, sign and verify credentials, and facilitate data sharing within an application—all through a single identity owned and controlled by the entity itself, whether a person, device, or enterprise. As Microsoft explains, DIDs exist independently of any external organization or trusted intermediary, and are absolutely indispensable elements in building a vibrant, interoperable decentralized identity and application ecosystem.
“From the beginning, we recognized that having a scalable and secure DID implementation was a prerequisite for the types of applications and services we wanted to offer, so in 2019 we set out to create one.”
Since 2019, Microsoft has been working on the development of decentralized identifiers, which have become the fundamental technical component that makes decentralized identity possible.
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Self-identity, a necessity for society
Alex Simons, vice president of program management for Microsoft's Identity division, points out that each person or individual must have their own decentralized digital identity; one capable of allowing them to carry out different verifications, transactions and interactions in a secure and completely confidential manner, unlike traditional usernames and email addresses that do not guarantee privacy or confidentiality on the network.
ION leverages Bitcoin’s features and functionality to authenticate the digital identity of users and people online, and allows DIDs to be run en masse on the network. This gives a new, real-world use case with great potential for the Bitcoin blockchain.
Likewise, among the potential of digital identity, Microsoft highlights that DIDs allow, among many things, an employer to verify the background of a person applying for a vacancy, and thus check if they meet the requirements for the position with a single click; also, digital identity allows a bank to verify a person's identity to access credit, without having to reveal all their confidential information.
The applications of digital identity are endless, and they greatly facilitate processes by allowing interested parties to access only specific information, with prior authorization from the owner or entity.
More decentralization for the future
Although ION is still in its first version, as Microsoft has indicated, its development promises to be a major step towards building a more secure, reliable and, above all, decentralized network.
Microsoft notes that ION is a completely decentralized and permissionless network that does not rely on any central entity, trusted validators, or special protocol tokens; rather, it is a network that answers only to the same individuals or entities. The tech giant also claims that due to its characteristics, anyone who wants to can run an ION node. In fact, the more nodes that exist and are up and running, the stronger and more decentralized the network will become globally.
In June of last year, Microsoft announced the beta release of ION, beginning its journey toward a new generation of trust within online systems and the web. By the end of the year, Microsoft aims to release the final v1 version of ION, which will enable a wide variety of use cases. The company also plans to launch hackathons and other collaborative events to foster and grow the community of this new network.
Continue reading: ION, Microsoft's new decentralized identification system launching on the Bitcoin mainnet
